A Place to Nap

Last night I was too tired to sleep. So, I stayed awake and just played around with ink from one of my fountain pens and watercolors. I was surprised and liked it. Love to use water soluble inks in my work - they always bleed nicely. Now I wish I could take a little siesta outside in the garden of this little Italian country home zzzz.....

Tornado Drill

Because I grew up in Ohio, I was familiar with tornado drills. But it's been 20 years since I found myself grabbing the cat, and in this case, cat and 2 kittens (yes, one has a new home) and heading to the basement. I was painting and trying to get my ETSY shop set up (soon, but not yet) when I heard the alarm sound outside. That's not a pleasant sound. It's very unnerving and I found myself looking at the sky more than anything else. Oh well, at least the washer and dryer is in the basement and I can do some laundry. But I did get these this piece done and soon, very, very soon you will be able to buy giclee prints of these and many other painting you've seen here on my blog. I'll keep you posted.

Painting New York in Chicago

Yes, I have a day job and sometimes it's an all day job because I travel out of town about two weeks a month. At first this drove me crazy, because I felt like I was missing out on my "real" life. After a long day at a show, sitting in a hotel bed watching TV just left me even more drained than if I had ran a mile. So, I started bringing along my sketch book and travel watercolors on these trips. Even if I just copy pictures from magazines, I sleep better and don't feel so disconnected from my "other" life, my art life. So I brought along a photo I had taken in New York City near Central Park last fall a gorgeous turn of the century townhouse. (I want to live there.) I LOVE painting beautiful old architecture. I hoped to finish the picture while in Chicago - I mean I was going to be there for 5 days for Pete's sake. But just when you make plans, there are always interesting surprise. First, the weather proved to be much warmer than usual so I took a walk around the city, ate at some good restaurants, met some fun people and saw a green river - dyed for St. Patrick's Day, oh yeah, and I worked a little. The Saturday before I returned home I participated in a Women Entrepreneur's conference. Very encouraging. (yes I hope to take the leap myself soon) I was so excited to meet my favorite blogger Heather Bailey. What a swell gal. And then drove the very long boring trip back to Saint Louis. My weekend was almost ruined by the high cost of gas, but I overcame.
So finally, got the watercolor finished. Maybe I'll paint Chicago when I go to New York next month.

Mama Bear and Papa Bear and Soon Came Baby Bear

Only a couple months to go before the baby comes. I can not wait. But boy, or rather GIRL, my life is really going to change and I'm JUST the aunt. I'm working on my "baby talk" and I'm not referring to "EEeewwww aren't you the cutest little coochie coochie cooo...." what I mean is that I need to get rid of my sailor mouth - (clear throat). For example when I spill the kitty litter on the floor I would say "Oh Snap!" Easy!!!! and I feel sure that practice will only perfect my baby talk. However, I've decided I'll just tell her I suffer from occasional bouts of Tourette syndrome when driving and it's a medical condition so I can't help it... I can just hear the interesting conversation between my brother and me in the not so far future...
(phone rings)
Hello...
No, I don't know where she learned that word maybe at school....
oh that's right she's not in school yet...
well, maybe it was the church nursery .... So this is what I worked on today - the invitations to the Baby Shower. I originally wanted the theme to be "dirty diapers" but I also wanted people to attend the Baby Shower. Fun, fun, fun ...